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MAJOR B. CLARKE, or NEWNAN, GEoReiA.

CLEANING SEED-@orrori AND FEEDING rr To THE GIN.

Specification' of Letters ate'n't No. 12,091, datedl December 19', y1854.

To all whom t may concern c Be it known that I, MAJOR B'. CLARKE, of Newnan, in the county of Coweta and State of Georgia, have invented a new and Improved Machine for Vh'ippingy and Cleaning Seed-Cotton and Feeding it to thev Gin; and

I dol hereby declare vthat the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

Figure l, being la plan of the machine; Fig. 2, a side elevation thereof; and Fig. 3, a longitudinal vertical section of the same, in the line w x, of Fig. l.

Like letters designate corresponding vparts in all the figures.

The first feat-ure of my invention consists in the combination of a series of paral-y lel conveying bands y', having suitable spaces between each other, a seriesl of feeding teeth m, project/ing from the rear bandroller D, in said intermediate spaces, and a whipper composed of a series of strong'. beaters n, projecting radially from a roller' G, which revolve between said feeding teeth, close behind said conveying bands; arranged and operating substantially as hereinafter set forth, for the purpose of cleaning the crude seed-cotton, and properly opening and separating its fibers, preparatory to entering n the gin.

The second feature of my invention consists in constructing the inclined screen I-I, partly solid and partly open, viz., the upper portion solid, against which the cotton is thrown by the beaters a, and the remaining portion of parallel inclined bars la, with intermediate spaces, through'which the impurities fall; for the purpose of preventing the collection and clogging of the cotton between the bars of the screen, substantially as hereinafter specified.

The machine has a suitably constructed frame A, the dimensions of which will depend upon the size of the gin, with which it is to be worked. It may be attached to the gin by any convenient means-generally by placing the notches y, in the rear ends of the sills of the frame, upon the end of the gin, and ysecuring them there by hasps on the gin, which fit in staples a, on the whipper-frame.

'I he cotton is rst placed in the hopper n, from which it is conveyed by a series of nar row endless bands y', which pass over rollers I, and D, They are situated parallel with each other, and some'V distance apart, so' as to leave spaces betweenv them, as represented 1n Fig. l. In orderto tighten these bands", if they Should become too' slack,- a; taf P journals ofthe roller I together with a tighteningscrew o, be provided, as

y'shown inFigs. 2 and 3. This series'of bandsv compose a conveyer, which at the same timel cotton.

The hindroller D, arond which the'bandsiare conveyed, is provided with a series of teeth that projectradially fromV periphery, in such. positions as to revolve in the spaces between saidbands".` They be of any convenient length-say of about the proportion represented in the' drawings@ Theseteeth serve. to take the cotton frein4 the conveying bands, as' itjis brought t" them, loosen and separate its fibers, and' hold it to'be acted upon by the whipper presently' to .be described. The amount of cotton which they take from the conveying bands, is regulated by a gate s" whichis simply al thin board situated vertically edgewise above the feeding roll'erD, and is'made adi' jaa-atie'A up and atea by a area .t aia passes down through a crossbar if ofthe frame, and through said gate, substantially as shown in Fig. 3. By enlarging or contracting the space between the gate and the teeth m, the quantity of cotton passing through is varied.

The whipper is situated just behind the feeding roller D', and is composed of a series of strong beaters n, which project radially from a roller G, in such position as to revolve between the teeth m, without touching them. They are generally made of hard wood, and may be of any convenient length-as much as a foot or a foot and a half if desired, their extremities reaching between the teeth m, so as to nearly touch the roller D. They are to revolve rapidly in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3, while the teeth m, revolve much more slowly in the opposite direction. Therefore, as the feeding teeth take up and hold the cotton, a little at a time, in a loosened state, these with arms fw, w, extending forward tothe acts as a screen to assist in c eaning .the

rapidly revolving beaters strike it powerj fully, and efectually beat out all dirt and impurities, and still more separate its fibers, leaving it in a clean and disentangled state well suited to beacted upon by the gin, which will produce an article therefrom much superior to the ordinary ginned cotton, and also gin considerably more in the same time. The revolving teeth fm, are much superior to stationary teeth orbars, because they feed the cotton more regularly to the beaters and especially because they yield by their revolving, and allow the cotton to'be easily stripped therefrom by the beaters n.

As the cotton falls from the beaters fn, it is received by an inclined screen H, which conducts it immediately toV the hopper of the gin, the upper end being` hinged to the frame of the machine, and the lower end resting upon the gin. The upper portion g, upon which the coton is driven by the beaters with considerable force, is made solid; and the remaining portion is composed of parallel inclined bars, or fingers, 7c, with spaces between them, so as to form a suitable.f screen for separating the impurities detached by the whipper, from the cotton. The solid portion g, is employed to prevent the cotton being driven, and clogging, be tween the bars of the screen, which would be the result if said bars ext-ended up where the cotton first strikes with violence. This screen conducts the cotton so gradually and regularly to the gin that no attendant is required at the hopper thereof. As a modiication of my machine, I also contemplate adding a feeding roller B, provided with teeth e., to be placed in the hopper il, in

connection with an additional whipper C, l, and regulating gate 1r, which is to be adjusted by a screw u, passing down through a cross-bar 0, in the same manner as the similar devices above described. This feeding roller and whipper revolve inthe directions indicated by arrows in Fig. 3, and serve to give additional efficiency to the machine.

The several revolving parts of the machine may be driven by power communicated from the in through the driving belts L, and M; the ormer driving the whipperrollers G, and C, by passing over a pulley f, on the roller G, from which pulley, a band also passes to a pulley g, on the roller C; and the latter passing around a pulley a, on a driving shaft N, which has a pulley b, on the other end, whence a band passes to a pulley c, on the feeding roller D, also provided with another pulley 0, from which a band goes to a pulley d, on the feeding roller B, when used.

.lvVhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of a series of parallel bands j, operating as a feeding'apron, with the toothed roller m, the teeth being so arranged on the roller as to pass between the feeding bands, while the arms of a beater are so arranged as to pass between the teeth of the said roller and strip them of the cotton as it is carried forward, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

The above specification of my new and improved machine for whipping and cleaning seed cotton, and feeding it to the gin, signed by me this 28th day of June 1854.

MAJOR B. CLARKE.

Witnesses THOMAS BROWN, J. S. BROWN. 

